Corrintec, a division of Cathelco Ltd., reported Jan. 31 the completion of a cathodic protection (CP) survey on the subsea section of the Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados off Ecuador. The subsea section consists of four pipelines from storage tanks at the Esmeraldas marine terminal to two coupling buoys 7 km offshore: one for use with tankers as large as 150,000 dwt and the other capable of supplying tankers as large as 325,000 dwt. The buoys are in 30-40 m of water. Each of the four pipelines can transport as much as 60,000 bbl/hr.
Corrintec, which also surveyed the 500-m landfall section of each pipeline, used the trailing wire method to verify the effectiveness of CP on the subsea sections. The work was undertaken to satisfy insurance requirements for OCP Ecuador SA, the pipeline’s operator.
The 450,000 b/d mainline portion of OCP consists of 24-in. and 36-in. pipe, extending 500 km from the Amazon, across the Andes, to Esmeraldas. The system uses three pumping stations and heats the transporting oil to a peak elevation of 4,000 m, after which a combination of gravity and depressurization units delivers the oil to Esmeraldas.
OCP transports 18-24° gravity crude from the Amazonas terminal, Neuva Loja, Sucumbios; picks up additional crude at Sardinas station, Napo, near the town of Borja; and arrives at Esmeraldas’ five 750,000 bbl storage tanks.